Ford Mustang’s SYNC 3 Now Recognizes Chinese Handwriting

The Ford Mustang has quickly ascended to the position of China’s best-selling sports coupe, and to help keep it on top, the team at the automaker’s Research and Engineering Center in Nanjing have developed a new feature for the SYNC 3 infotainment system that allows drivers to hand-write Chinese characters on their touchscreens.

Prior to this development, Mustang drivers were only able to write on the in-vehicle touchscreen using phonetic spellings of Chinese words using the Roman alphabet, otherwise known as pinyin. Because pinyin is ostensibly a second language, and one that considerably slows down users’ ability to input words even with predictive technology, Ford developed the option to use Chinese characters as a means to aid its loyal customers.

“The Chinese version of SYNC 3 is far more than just a translation of a global technology,” said Fisher Xu, SYNC Supervisor for Ford Asia Pacific. “It’s really been localized to respond to a Chinese driver’s needs with a local point of view, from the voice commands that understand our accents and our habits, to the way we structure our statements.”

“For instance, when you talk to a friend in China and they ask where you are, they’re really looking for a building name or a point of interest, not a street number,” Xu added. “That’s probably different to other parts of the world, and SYNC 3 is smart enough to know this local preference, seamlessly.”

Watch: Ford Mustang Recognizes Chinese Handwriting

The Mustang’s SYNC 3 system can also understand voice commands in Mandarin, which combines with the multi-modal handwriting function to make the pony car a more intuitive ride. The handwriting feature is also being made available in popular vehicles up to and including the Focus, Taurus Limited Edition, Edge, Kuga, and Explorer.